When White goes Wrong

Finally making the decision to reveal your brightest smile can feel like a huge victory. You deserve to feel good about the appearance of your teeth, and whitening discoloration is one of the easiest things you can do. The best way to obtain the results you want in the shortest period is to work with your Houston dentist, who will provide you with a professional-grade teeth whitening system that is both safe and effective. What many people do is try to go it alone. In so doing, they set themselves up for some pretty significant pitfalls. We’d like to help you avoid those by discussing what they are, and how you may be tempted right into them.

The Thrill of a New Smile

Seeing stains lift gradually from your teeth can be a thrilling experience. Sometimes, the mere prospect of putting the radiance back into the smile is enough to send patients overboard. When we say overboard, what we mean is that the excitement about a new smile makes a person overuse their whitening treatments. There are a few ways this commonly occurs.

Wanting to expedite the process, some patients will tell themselves that there is no harm in wearing their trays longer than they were instructed to do so. Whitening trays can be worn for varying durations of time, from 30 minutes to overnight. The longer they are in place, though, the stronger sensitivity may become.

Another way that patients to wrong with their whitening is performing touch-ups too frequently. Typically, the initial process of removing stains should achieve results that last about a year, sometimes longer. Some patients admit to touching up their smile every few months, or as often as every month. The problem with frequent teeth-whitening is that enamel may erode. The enamel that erodes cannot be replaced and, in time, the degradation may result in visible dentin, which means discoloration as the norm.

Whitening your teeth can do a lot for your sense of self-confidence. We are here to support you in reducing discoloration in the safest way possible. For a consultation with our friendly dental team, call (281) 486-8061.